Clinton's Live Above The Law and Elect Hillary and Get Prepared For What You Receive. Read: U.S. CODE, TITLE 18, SECTION 2071!

The Clinton's believe they are above the law and,
lamentably, in the current PC world they have
proven they can be.


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Message body

This past week we learned there was nothing new in The Bhengazi Report.  Hillary told us it was
time to move on like the "what difference does it make?" comment of old. Nothing new there.

Committee Democrats, who lived in denial throughout, railed at the cost as did their president
who, has doubled our deficit. Mr. Ben Rhodes did such an effective job of stonewalling Obama
re-employed him to lie about the Iran Deal. This from the same who complain about Trump's
walls. Nothing new there.

No there was nothing new because we already knew Obama, the Democrat's nominee and a cast
of other lackeys are certified liars doing what they do best - lie. Hillary lied to The American
people, then to the families of those she was supposed to protect but told the truth to her
daughter. Nothing new there?

Obama had the rescue mission stand down after having Marines dress and undress so as not to
offend Libyan sensibilities.  Obama has drawn and disregarded lines  before. Nothing new there.

Obama even sent a woman out to lie on five talk shows blaming the entire episode on a trumped
up video. Smacks of "you can keep your doctor." Nothing new there.

I could go on but I hope you get the idea that Ecclesiastes is correct.  There is nothing new under
the sun when it comes to Obama and feckless Democrats.  Like the old fishermen the truth
escapes them. Nothing new there either.

What is new is that one day the truth will come out because Obama will be gone and a new
administration will declassify evidence revealing the  truth and we will learn what we already
know.  Obama wanted to cover up his failed policies to support his re-election and JV comment.
As Professor Gruber said, Americans  are stupid and Ben Rhodes said, the press sucks up
 whatever we tell them. Nothing new there but don't hold your breath.

It is the old bait and switch and accuse your adversaries of what you do tactic which is effective because it 
will all be forgotten by a gullible public incapable of reasoning and/or too lazy to give a damn whether our 
Republic survives as long as they get their goodies from Uncle Sam who is now a transgender, cross dressing 
PC soul fearful of identifying or calling out radical Muslim terrorists

++++

Bill Clinton, like myself, apparently does not own a cell phone so , bursting, with pride over the birth of his 
new grandson he simply wanted to show The Attorney General a picture.

I guess the rest of the Cabinet and President Obama should feel slighted.

Ah, but if Hillary becomes president no doubt Bill could have been on a quid pro quo mission. Disregard an 
FBI indictment, if there is one, and you can sit on the Supreme Court for life.

I know, seems outlandish.  So does Obama's inability to attribute terrorism to radical Muslims.

Frankly, nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to this Administration's  lack of ethics.  After all Ben  
Rhodes seems to be their role model.
+++

The Huffington Post writes anti-Semitism is back.  I never thought it left, it just became more subdued. 

Even good can come from evil.  It simply takes character.  (See 1 and 1a below.)

===

Appeasement and Brexit. (See 2 below.)

===

You do not have to be a lawyer to read this and come to your own conclusion. (See 3 below.)

After reading: U.S. CODE, TITLE 18, SECTION 2071-I concluded Hillary Clinton's private email server is illegal. It even "disqualifies" her from holding ANY federal office. 

It is amazing how if you ever gave money to The Clinton's you could be appointed
to positions that would allow you to know some of the nation's top secrets.  This is 
how much Hillary "Jane Fonda" Clinton cared about America's security. So elect 
her president and get prepared for what you receive.  (See 3a below.)

+++

Yes, The GOP has a tax plan program. (See 4 below.)

===
Carole Glick on Israel's Spring. (See 5 below.)
===
Every time I go away interesting things happen.  Market  volatility increases, radical Muslims continue to kill 
and apologists, all the way up to The White House, make excuses but some things stay the same and I refer
you to Norman Podhoretz's book, which I have often referred to,  entitled "World War 4" (he considered the 
Cold War, World War 3.)   

It is uncanny how this man predicted/reasoned all that is happening.   If you have not read it you should.

As for the political scene, Democrats remain in denial, continue to be inoculated from either the truth or
seeking it. Smug, self-righteous do nothing Repubs continue to find Trump repugnant and have only 
themselves to blame for had they expended as much effort in standing up to Obama they might not have to
deal with Donald.

They claim they are being virtuous but they are simply helping Hillary while trying to protect their own 
behinds.

If Hillary wins they will claim "we told you so" but , in truth, their resistance will be the real cause.

Again, a Happy  and, hopefully, safe, Fourth.  
+++
Dick

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1) Anti-Semitism Is Back. Will You Stand By Or Stand up?

OPED by Gabriel Groisman

From The Huffington Post

"Today, anti-Semitism is once again on the rise. It is at levels which we have not seen in the Western world since the rise of the Nazi party."

Erin Schrode, a promising 25-year-old Jewish woman, announces her candidacy for U.S. 
Congress. In response, she is bombarded by hundreds of anti-Semitic messages: “Fire up the 
oven.” “Kike.” “Get out of my country, kike. Get to Israel where you belong. That or the oven. Take 
your pick.” This did not happen in the 1930s. It happened last month in California.

An Oberlin College professor, Joy Karega, posted a photo of Jacob Rothschild, a member of a 
well-known Jewish banking family, which read: “We own nearly every central bank in the world. We 
financed both sides of every war since Napoleon. We own your news, the media, your oil and your 
government.” This was not published in Gleichschaltung, a Nazi newspaper. This was on her 
Facebook page.

Students at UC Berkley woke up one morning this past year to the words, “Zionists should be sent 
to the gas chamber” painted on a building.

Jewish students at NYU, Harvard, Florida Atlantic University, and other universities at some point or 
another in the past two years came home to “Eviction” noticesposted on their doors, calling for the 
removal of all Jews from the campus. Of course, the notices were fake, but the impact was certainly
real.

Anti-Semitic discourse on the internet has increased a mind-boggling 114 percent from 2014 to 
2015, according to one report. Last month, one Jewish New York Times editor, Jonathan Weisman, 
was the target of a coordinated Twitter attack aimed at harassing internet users who have Jewish 
sounding names. Weisman was inundated with thousands of anti-Semitic tweets. One of the many
 tweets depicted a trail of dollar bills leading to an oven, another was a picture of a Menorah made 
of the number 6 million (representing the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust) — the harassment
was so extreme and unrelenting that he had no choice but to close his account.

The attack on Weisman was not an isolated incident, but rather part of a larger anti-Semitic attack 
online. A group of tech-savvy bigots created a punctuation-based code, referred to as “(((echoes)))”
to identify and brand Jews on the Internet.  This code works with Google Chrome’s “coincidence 
detector” and automatically places these “echoes” around more than 8,000 names. Once marked, 
the Jewish Internet user is flooded with malicious and hateful anti-Semitic comments.  The 
examples are endless.  Of course, this is only in the United States. The incidents in Europe, South 
America and of course the Middle East are exponentially worse.

Suddenly, mainstream culture is finding cover for the age-old hatred of Jews. They’ve figured it out. 
 So long as the attack is lightly-battered and flash fried in a light coat of anti-Israel sentiment, and as 
long as you pretend you are fighting for “human rights,” the rise of anti-Semitism is socially 
acceptable. It shouldn’t be. It’s can’t be. Not again.
 

Am I sounding an alarm? You bet. According to one study, nearly 75 percent of Jewish college 
students reported being exposed to anti-Semitism.  The FBI reported that the majority of anti-
religious hate crimes in the U.S. in 2015 were perpetrated against Jews. The Jewish community is 
well-aware of the situation. It is the topic of discussion at dinner tables across the nation. Now, it is 
time for it to become a topic of conversation at yours.

Whether it was blood libels, genocides, massacres, expulsions or forced conversions, Jews have 
been hated and persecuted for time immemorial. A culture of acquiescence, silence and even a 
“wink and a nod,” pervaded societies across Europe and the Middle East before and during each 
of these incidents.  Today, it seems that the same bystander culture exists across this country. 

Much is written about what could have, or should have, been done to have prevented the 
Holocaust from ever happening. Many argue that the party and movement were too large to stop.  
But, those who stood by and allowed the Nazi party to murder 6 million Jews, stood by at every 
step of the way.  They stood by when Hitler passed his laws boycotting Jewish businesses and 
professionals in 1933. They stood by when Hitler passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935.  They stood
by during Kristallnacht in 1938. Of course, they continued to stand by during the Holocaust itself.  
Unfortunately, the same is true for the rest of the world. That is until May 1944 when the allied forces
decided that enough was enough and decided to stand up and put an end to the atrocities.

Today, anti-Semitism is once again on the rise. It is at levels which we have not seen in the Western 
world since the rise of the Nazi party.  It is the moral obligation of all civilized people — Jews and non
-Jews alike — to stand up to this bigotry and to put a stop to this age-old hatred.  It is unacceptable 
to stand idly by and watch until it is too late. 

What should you do?

Hold the bigots accountable. Call them out. If your alma-mater is supporting anti-Semitic professors,
or allowing events to turn into Jew-hating get togethers, write the Dean and let them know that it is 
unacceptable. If you donate to the university, withhold your donation, and let them know why — in 
writing.  When you do these things, send your letters to your local newspaper to be published.  Of 
course, post it on your social media accounts. If Facebook is hosting an anti-Semitic page, as was 
the case earlier this year, write Facebook and demand that they take it down. Tell your friends to do 
the same. Report the page to anti-discrimination organizations and ask them to pressure Facebook 
as well.  Exactly this occurred earlier this year, and Facebook finally responded by taking down the 
pages in question. If you are at a university where there is an openly anti-Semitic professor, boycott 
his class.  Convince other students to do the same. Then, write a letter to the Dean or the Board of 
Trustees, telling them why no one is registering for this professor’s courses.  A group of professors 
at Oberlin know what it means to stand up. 174 members of the Oberlin faculty signed a statement 
strongly condemning the anti-Semitic conduct of Joy Karega.  Do the same when you see bigotry 
and anti-Semitism. And, more simply, do not hesitate to stand up and say something.  While it may 
not get you anywhere online, it certainly will at your office or at your friend’s house.  If we do nothing 
and simply let it fester, it will certainly grow until it is beyond our control. We cannot ignore history.

Remember the words of the great Albert Einstein: “The world will not be destroyed by those who do 
evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”

Gabriel Groisman is a Councilman for the city of Bal Harbour, Florida and a Shareholder at the law 
firm of Coffey Burlington, PL in Miami, Florida

1a) 

After Fleeing the Nazis, a Legacy That 

Won’t Run Dry

The frugal couple bumped into young Warren Buffett. 

Now they’ve left millions to Israeli water research.

  

Lottie and Howard Marcus in Israel, 2005. Photo: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

By Seth M. Siegel

How does one overcome almost unimaginable horror and trauma? For Holocaust survivors 

Howard and Lottie Marcus, the healing came, in part, from the hope that they could help to 

provide refuge for other Jews who might find themselves at risk. But after restarting their 

broken lives in America, this modest couple could never have imagined that they would end up 

giving what is likely the largest single charitable gift in Israel’s history—$400 million—to be 

announced June 24. 

Howard and Lottie were born in pre- Hitler Germany—he in 1909, she in 1916. But they met in 

America. With the rise of Nazism, both had the foresight, courage and good fortune to leave 

their native land before it was too late. In 1934, after Nazi goons murdered her brother outside 

their home in Linden, Germany, the 17-year-old Lottie persuaded her parents to allow her to go 

to the U.S.

 Lottie’s future husband was, by all accounts, a gifted dentist. After the election of Hitler in 1933, Howard made his way to Naples and a professional life there, only to find himself in jeopardy again in 1936, when Mussolini agreed to Hitler’s demand that Italy expel all 
foreign Jews. As luck would have it, one of Howard’s patients was the U.S. consul general and, in an act of kindness, the official broke U.S. law by backdating the visa request to a period when transit papers were still available.

Arriving in America, Lottie spoke fluent German, French and English, and she developed 

secretarial skills in all three languages. This helped her get a job on Wall Street. There, she met 

Benjamin Graham, the legendary “father of value investing.” Graham soon became smitten and 

proposed to her. Lottie—20 years his junior—declined. Even so, the friendship endured until 

Graham’s death in 1976.

When Howard got to the U.S. in 1939, he had to redo years of his dental training to qualify for a 
license. Shortly after he opened his New York-based practice, he met Lottie at a dinner party and 
soon fell in love with her. He pursued her until she agreed to marry him. It was a small and 
bitter sweet wedding. Other than the bride and groom and one of his three sisters, every member 
of the two families had perished in the Holocaust.

The Marcuses lived quietly and frugally. Their small indulgences included an occasional ski 

vacation with Ben Graham and his girlfriend (and future wife). One day, they asked their friend 

for investment advice. Graham told them about a student of his at Columbia Business School, a 

young man he thought a prodigy. He invited that student,Warren Buffett, to meet Howard and 

Lottie. They put most of their nest egg in Mr. Buffett’s new partnership, which later became  

Berkshire Hathaway. 

With annual compounding, that investment grew to millions and then to many millions. But 

the Marcuses continued to live modestly. No one who knew them had any idea of the magnitude 

of their wealth.

 In the late 1970s, they followed the advice of Howard’s doctor and moved from New York to the warmer climate of San Diego. In retirement they pursued their interest in world affairs, which led them to believe that Middle East peace could be advanced if water scarcity 
were ameliorated there.

By chance in 1997 they met a development officer representing Israel’s Ben-Gurion University 

of the Negev and learned about the school’s work in desalination and desert farming, among 

other areas. A few years later they made a generous gift to support the school’s Zuckerberg 

Institute for Water Research. But they still needed to find a home for the rest of their large, and 

growing, fortune.

 In 2005 Howard and Lottie, now 95 and 89, made the long flight—in coach—from California to 
Israel. They returned with clarity on what to do with their estate.

Howard and Lottie loved America and often expressed gratitude for having been saved from 

certain death by the benevolence of their adoptive homeland. Yet they also often told friends 

that if Germany—“the most civilized nation in the world,” in their words—could descend into 

barbarity and the mass murder of Jews, it could happen anywhere. A strong and secure state of 

Israel, they believed, would have saved their families from the Nazis and was essential for the 

future of the Jewish people. So the couple decided to give nearly all of their estate to Ben- 

Gurion University, with a special emphasis on its being used to further research into improving 

water management, conservation and irrigation for dry-lands agriculture.

 Howard died in 2014, when he was 104. After Lottie’s death in December 2015, at nearly 100, 
the gift will now be disbursed. It will more than double the university’s endowment, and will 
likely turn the desert-based school into a global center for water research, further enhancing 
Israel’s scientific reputation and helping people the world over. And for the donors, just the 
knowledge of how their gift would be used was a source of comfort until the end of their lives.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

2)  Obama's Iran appeasement and Brexit

By Richard Baehr

The catastrophe that has hit Syria -- hundreds of thousands dead, millions dislocated, and a multi-year
stream of refugees headed to Europe that now numbers in the millions -- is a political and human disaster with multiple godfathers. After several years of war, there is still no evidence that the fighting will soon end, or that a political solution is at hand.

One of the biggest reasons for this calamity has been the near complete abdication of responsibility for
or interest in addressing the conflict by the Obama administration, a neglect that history will not regard
as benign. When over 50 State Department officials expressed their dismay at American policy towards
Syria in a written statement, and their disgust was made public, it was, unfortunately, only a one-day
story for the national networks and leading papers.

This is, after all, a press corps that was never eager to embarrass the administration, which they have so
ably served for more than seven years. This history of journalistic obeisance was what enabled White
House adviser Ben Rhodes to gloat over how easy it was to deceive the reporters on what was really in
the Iran nuclear deal.

Rhodes classified most of the reporters as young know-nothings. Of course, there were also those who 
were knowingly in the bag for the deal for other reasons (such as former Ambassador Thomas Pickering, 
who was bought and paid for by Boeing while he was lobbying Congress for the Iran deal, never 
disclosing his financial arrangement with the plane manufacturer).

It is obvious in one regard why the Obama administration shied away from any serious military
involvement in Syria, including the time when the president reversed course on responding to Syria's use
of chemical weapons, the supposed red line that he set up that was crossed and presumably demanded
military action. The president saw his role as being the un-Bush, the leader who would take America out
of conflicts into which his predecessor had led it. These conflicts included the wars in Iraq and
 Afghanistan. The president put little effort into achieving a separation agreement with the Iraqi 
government that would have enabled a modest American force to remain in the country. The rise of 
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria was hastened by the American withdrawal and the perception in Iraq 
among the minority Sunni population that the Shiite government in power, now linked up with Iran, 
would make life miserable for the country's Sunnis. The American "surge" effort in the final years of the 
Bush administration enabled President Barack Obama to begin his term with the country in far better 
shape than had been the case a few years earlier in terms of both military status and political 
arrangements. Today Iraq and Syria are in a state that makes the worst days of the conflict during the 
Bush years seem like a stroll in the park.

Were the Obama policy of disengagement merely that, it might at least be one consistent with someone
whose views toward the military and war were in tune with the likes of folk singer Pete Seeger: time to
lay down our sword and shield. But there has been a second, if not overarching, foreign policy mission in
the Obama years, during both his terms in office, despite the lies repeatedly told to reporters and
members of Congress suggesting the Iran initiative only began when a more moderate government came
to power in Tehran in his second term. The Obama team was on a mission from the start to achieve a
nuclear deal with Iran, really any deal with Iran, that would serve as the president's signal foreign policy
achievement. This "achievement" turned out to be on a par with Obama's major domestic policy
achievement: the creation of Obamacare, the health insurance program which to date has run up far
 higher costs to serve far fewer of the previously uninsured than advertised.

The administration, particularly Secretary of State John Kerry, has been scrambling to make sure Iran is
happy and receives everything he promised them in the negotiations, the promises he has always meant
to keep as opposed to those he made to members of Congress, which were largely fictions.

Iran is the U.S.'s new regional ally -- a regime favored with more positive attention than any nation in
Europe, or Israel, or its former Sunni Arab allies in the Middle East. Some Treasury Department officials
are outraged with Kerry's efforts to override their efforts over the years to set up various sanctions
regimes related to banking and the use of the American dollar in transactions, which Obama is eager to
ignore to make the mullahs' economy grow faster. The propaganda is that faster economic growth will
make Iran more moderate.

The Obama administration's Iran swoon is a major reason for its hands-off policy on Syria. The Assad
regime is tightly linked to the Iranian regime, one of its closest allies. Iran regularly arms its terror army
Hezbollah by first shipping weapons to Syria, which are then transferred across the border to Lebanon to
threaten Israel. Both the Iranian military and Hezbollah have been fighting in Syria on behalf of the Assad
regime. Iranian forces have worked with the government forces in Iraq to battle Islamic State, a threat to
the Iran-friendly Shiite regime now in place in Baghdad.

The Obama team has talked about elevating Iran's regional position as a counterweight to Sunni regimes.
This new balance of power would somehow play out peacefully among the contending parties once the
U.S. is out of the way and Iran is restored to its rightful place among the community of nations. It is at
times hard to believe that the people who run foreign policy for the United States could say these things
without laughing at each other.

Britain's exit from the European Union is not a laughing matter for the United Kingdom or for what
remains of the EU. If there is one factor above all others that probably led to the victory for the "Leave"
 side, it had to be the refugee and immigration disorder that has resulted from the war in Syria.

If you cannot control who comes into your country, you are no longer a country. Britain's annual
immigration levels recently (350,000 a year) are, on a per capita basis, nearly double the legal
immigration levels in the United States.

The chaos in the Middle East -- from Libya (another disastrous Obama initiative) to Iraq and Syria, and
the resulting mass flight from these countries -- are reasons for many to fear that Great Britain and much
of Europe will be overwhelmed by the tide. German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the floodgates
with a warm welcome to the refugees. A majority of the people of Britain and some other EU countries
were not on board with the welcome mat. Maybe the next Brexit like vote will be Finish, or Czeckout, or
Italeave, or Deportugal. In any case, when America withdraws, from Europe or the Middle East, there is
likely trouble ahead.

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3)

U.S. CODE, TITLE 18, SECTION 2071
 Word for word from the Cornell Law Library.
Former United States Attorney General Michael Mukasey tells MSNBC that not only is Hillary 

Clinton's private email server illegal, it "disqualifies" her from holding any federal office.

Such as, say, President of the United States. Very specifically points to one federal law, Title 18. 

Section 2071.

For those of us who do not have United States Code committed to memory, here's what it says:

“(a) Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or 

attempts, to do so, or, with intent to doso takes ; carries away any record, proceeding, map, 

book, paper, document, or other thing, filed. or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of 

the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial, or public officer of the United 

States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

"(b) Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, 

or other thing, willfully, and un-lawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or 

destroys the same, shall be fined, under this title, or imprisoned, not more than
three years, or both; ; shall forfeit his office, & be disqualified, from holding any office, 

under the United States. As used, in this, sub-section, the term 'office' does not include, the office held by any person, as a retired officer, of the Armed Forces of the United States.'
  

Yes, it explicitly states, "shall forfeit his office,be disqualified from holding, any office, under the 

United States."Shouldn't voters know that? The media would not tell them. So it is up 

to us. Can you help hold Hillary accountable?
Verified: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title18/html/USCODE-2011-title18-partI-chap101-sec2071.htm U.S.C. Title 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
http://www.gpo.gov/

[18 U.S.C. United States Code, 2011 Edition Title 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE PART I 

- CRIMES CHAPTER 101 - 

3a)

Hillary’s Strange Security Adviser

By Kimberly Strassel

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been forced to acknowledge over the past week that the former
secretary of state did not, as she had claimed, turn over all her work-related email to the State
Department. The new story is that her deletion of these emails was an oversight. Team Clinton
is hoping therefore that you won’t hear the story of Rajiv K. Fernando, which would suggest the oversight tale to be yet another untruth.

Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of Mr. Fernando, because you arguably never should have.
Mr. Fernando is a one-time Chicago securities trader who in July of 2011 somehow found
himself sitting on the International Security Advisory Board, with the ability to access the
nation’s most sensitive intelligence.

Mr. Fernando had no background that would have qualified him to sit on the ISAB alongside
the likes of former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, former Defense Secretary
William Perry, a United Nations chief weapons inspector, members of Congress, and nuclear
scientists. That Mr. Fernando didn’t belong was apparent. “We had no idea who he was,” one
board member told ABC News. So how exactly did he get there?

We now finally know, thanks to State Department internal emails that the government was
forced to turn over to the watchdog group Citizens United. And thanks to ABC News, which
began digging into Mr. Fernando’s bizarre appointment when it first happened.

In August 2011, ABC requested a copy of Mr. Fernando’s resume from the State Department.
This, the internal emails show, sent a press aide reeling to find answers to how a trader had
ended up on the ISAB. Even the aide noted that it was “natural to ask how he got onto the
board when compared to the rest of the esteemed list of members.”

The response came only a few hours later in an email from Wade Boese, chief of staff for an
undersecretary of state: “The true answer is simply that S staff ( Cheryl Mills) added him,” Mr.
Boese wrote. “Raj was not on the list sent to S; he was added at their insistence.”

S, in this situation, stands for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Ms. Mills, a longtime aide,
was her chief of staff. Why would Hillary want to entrust the nation’s secrets to a man with no intelligence experience?

Here’s what we do know: Mr. Fernando, before his plum appointment, had given between
$100,000 and $250,000 to the William J. Clinton Foundation. He had been a top bundler for
Mrs. Clinton in her 2008 presidential run, and later a major Obama fundraiser. He gave tens of
thousands more to a political group that helped Hillary pay off her 2008 campaign debt by
renting her email list.

The 2011 emails reveal that the State Department knew it had a problem on its hands. “We must
protect the Secretary’s and Under Secretary’s name,” the press aide warned. Ms. Mills, the
messages say, asked staff to “stall” the news organization. Damage control came in the form of
Mr. Fernando’s quick resignation, on grounds of “additional time needed to devote to his
business.” Uh huh.

This is how Hillary Clinton operates. Donald Trump, for all the trouble his out-loud musings 
cause him, can nonetheless take credit for perfectly distilling, in five short words, what would 
be the defining nature of another Clinton presidency: The politics of personal profit. Give 
money to the Clinton Foundation; get special favors. Figure out a way to slip the Clintons some 
speech money, or cattle-futures trades, or donations; get rewarded in the political arena.

This is also why Mrs. Clinton kept control over her home-brew email server. The Citizens
United release shows that messages about ISAB appointments were forwarded to Mrs. Clinton’s
personal account—where they fell into a black hole. Were there email discussions about the
personal-profit merit of appointing Mr. Fernando? Ask Mrs. Clinton’s webmaster, Bryan
Pagliano. Or not. He recently invoked the Fifth during a deposition 125 consecutive times.

Meantime, we have yet more evidence of a politicized State Department flacking for Hillary’s
misdeeds. It continues to stonewall demands for documents. It issued a statement after the
Citizens United emails came out, defending the Fernando appointment on grounds that the
ISAB’s charter calls for “a balance of backgrounds and points of view”—thereby giving the
Clinton campaign cover.

News organizations have also noted that Mr. Fernando is missing from the State Department
website listing former ISAB members. So the department has also scrubbed the national record
of actual facts. Much as it deliberately cut a portion from the video of an uncomfortable press
briefing, or as the administration attempted to censor the transcript of the Orlando shooter’s 911
call.

As for Mr. Fernando, a message left on a cell number that appeared to belong to him was not
returned. But he’s still bundling—this time for Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 bid. A peek at the Clinton
Foundation website shows he continued to donate and is now listed as having given between
$1 million and $5 million. If he keeps that up, he’ll likely be in the running to become
President Hillary’s own secretary of state.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

4) The GOP Plan for Tax Sanity

To rev the economy, cut taxes on business, simplify the code and let 
American families file on a postcard.

By KEVIN BRADY

America’s tax code is beyond repair. Tinkering with it won’t work. The only hope is a bold tax-
reform plan that will liberate our nation from the slow-growth status quo and jump-start a new 
era of American prosperity and growth.

The House GOP has been building on years of work by Ways and Means Committee Republicans
 to develop pro-growth tax reform. On Friday, as part of Speaker Paul Ryan’s “Better Way” 
agenda, House Republicans are delivering to the American people a plan for a 21st-century tax 
system. It delivers simplicity and fairness, yet is built primarily for growth in jobs, paychecks 
and America’s economy.

To start, the House GOP plan brings long-awaited relief to workers and families from the 
recurring nightmare of tax season. By lowering rates, increasing the standard deduction, 
streamlining seven tax brackets into three and eliminating a host of special-interest provisions, 
our blueprint simplifies the tax code dramatically for families and individuals. And by providing 
incentives for savings and investment, it fosters economic growth and job creation while 
ensuring that Americans spend far less time and money filing their taxes.

For years, people have begged Washington for a tax code that is simple and easy to understand. 
Under our blueprint, that’s exactly what they will find—especially come Tax Day onApril 15. 
For the first time in modern history, most workers and families will be able to file their taxes on 
a form as simple as a postcard.

Second, a tax code built for growth must support the success of America’s small businesses and 
the millions of workers they employ. To promote job growth, for the first time small businesses 
will no longer be taxed under the individual side of the code. Instead, they’ll benefit from a 
critical distinction between wage and business income. This allows for a lower tax rate for small
businesses of 25%—the lowest tax rate on pass-through income since before World War II.

Job creators of all sizes will also be able to take advantage of full and immediate expensing on 
investments in new equipment and technology—another historic first. This zero tax rate on new 
business investment is a vast departure from today’s complex depreciation rules, which direct 
businesses to write off purchases over long and often arbitrary periods of time.

Full and immediate expensing is widely recognized as one of the most pro-growth tax policies 
around. The ability to immediately deduct the costs of capital investments will help employers 
improve worker productivity and output—which grows Main Street jobs. And with these savings, businesses across the country will have more freedom to grow, hire new workers and increase wages.

To help American businesses compete and succeed in the ever-changing global tax environment, 
the House Republicans’ blueprint takes major steps to transform America’s outdated 
international tax system into one of the most modern, pro-growth systems in the world.

It starts by cutting America’s 35% corporate income-tax rate—the highest in the industrialized 
world—to a flat 20%. This is the largest corporate-rate reduction in U.S. history, and is achieved 
by eliminating dozens of crony tax carve-outs that hinder the nation’s economic potential and 
keep rates artificially high for everyone.

Next, the blueprint dramatically levels the playing field for America’s businesses by bringing the
U.S. tax system more in line with those of our international competitors. In a change designed to 
strengthen our global competitiveness, American job creators will no longer be taxed both abroad
and at home on the same dollar of income. There will be a zero tax rate on dividends brought home to America.

Additionally, the new blueprint encourages American companies to bring home trillions of dollars
of income that is currently “stranded” abroad—money that can be invested in U.S. communities 
to create new jobs, increase wages, and grow American businesses.

And because “Made in America” products and services currently face a price disadvantage both 
at home and abroad, American exports will no longer be taxed, and imports will not be 
subsidized. Competition will occur on price, quality and service—rather than tax regimes.

Finally, a simpler, fairer tax code demands a simpler, fairer tax collector. This new tax system 
returns power back to the taxpayer, and puts the primary focus of the Internal Revenue Service 
back where it belongs—on serving American taxpayers. The current IRS will not exist, but will 
be redesigned into three distinct service units—one staffed with expertise on business taxation, 
and another focused on state-of-the art customer service to families and individuals.

A third, independent unit will be geared toward helping Americans quickly resolve their unique 
tax challenges—in effect, a small-claims court for tax disputes so individuals and small 
businesses don’t spend thousands of dollars resolving minor tax issues.

This “built for growth” tax blueprint is just the beginning of our conversation. This is not 
Congress’s or the GOP’s tax code—it belongs to the American people. House Republicans will 
spend the coming months listening to and incorporating feedback from our constituents. We want 
all Americans to know we are dedicated to delivering a tax code that truly works for them—one 
that is built for growth and built on simplicity and fairness.

Rep. Brady, a Republican from Texas, is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
5)COLUMN ONE: Israel’s diplomatic spring

It is springtime for Israeli diplomacy as governments around the world seek out closer ties 
with the Jewish state.

By Caroline B Glick

We are living at a time when preconceived notions are crashing down one on top of the other.

We thought that nothing would ever change in the Arab world. But the Arab world hasn’t merely 
changed, large portions of it have collapsed. And regimes that have so far survived are beating a 
path to Israel’s door.

We thought that American dominance in the Middle East would last forever. And today the US is 
withdrawing. Its withdrawal may be short-lived, or it may stay out for the foreseeable future. 
Whatever the case, Russia is already picking up the pieces.

That would be shocking enough. But even worse, as it has withdrawn, the US has turned a cold 
shoulder to Israel and its Sunni allies in a bid to build an alliance with Iran.

We thought that the European Union was the rising world power. We thought the euro was the 
currency of tomorrow.

Instead, Britain decided to bolt the EU and the euro zone is a disaster zone. European economic
growth is sclerotic. European societies are coming apart at the seams under the crushing weight 
of failed monetary policies, over-regulation and mass emigration from the ruins of the Arab world.

Now we are witnessing the collapse of yet another preconceived notion.

For more than 20 years – indeed, since the initiation of the phony peace process with the PLO
in 1993 – the who’s who of Israel’s chattering classes have told us that our growing diplomatic 
isolation is the result of our failure to make peace with the PLO. Everything will change for the 
better, immediately, they tell us, the minute we give up Jerusalem, expel hundreds of thousands 
of Israelis from their homes in Judea and Samaria, and hand security control of the Jordan Valley 
over to someone else.

But amazingly, despite the fact that there is no peace process, rather than suffering from 
diplomatic collapse, it is springtime for Israeli diplomacy as governments around the world seek out 
closer ties with the Jewish state.

And they aren’t coming to us, despite our supposed moral failings. They are coming to us because 
they admire us.

Exhibit A: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Last week Putin delivered an address before the All Russian Historical Assembly about the 
importance of teaching Russian history to Russia’s citizens.

Putin used Israel as a model for how historical knowledge empowers a nation.

Putin said, “Israel… relies and develops its identity and brings up its citizens with reliance on 
historical examples.”

Putin’s use of Israel as a positive role model showed that Putin’s sudden courtship of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu is not solely the product of strategic and economic interests.

He happens to admire Israel.

Next week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will embark on a five-day visit to Africa. During the 
trip he will visit Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

He may meet with additional heads of state during one of his stops. Netanyahu’s visit marks the first
prime ministerial trip to Africa since Yitzhak Rabin visited in the early 1990s.

Africa isn’t Russia. But it is an important arena.

For nearly a century and a half, Africa has been the playing ground of world powers. In the 19th 
century, the European powers divided it up among themselves. In the Cold War, the newly 
independent states of Africa were sucked into the superpower competition as the US and the 
Soviet Union competed for turf through their African proxies.

Since the end of the Cold War, both world powers and regional ones have been drawn to Africa 
who view it as a convenient economic and strategic stomping ground.

Over the past decade and a half, China has emerged as the dominant economic player in Africa.

The Chinese move from state to state, building infrastructure in exchange for mining and petroleum 
contracts.

The US has opted not to challenge China’s economic dominance in Africa. The US’s nonchalance is either a function of indifference or of ignorance of the toll that China’s economic behavior will eventually take on US companies in Africa.

Case in point is Gabon. The West African nation is an oil power. According to business sources in 
Gabon, President Ali Bongo Ondimba is a pro-Western Muslim. He is interested in expanded trade 
ties to the US.

Ondimba’s electoral opponent, Jean Ping, a former senior UN official and former foreign minister, 
is oriented toward China. Yet, the US is allegedly supporting Ping over Ondimba due to 
dissatisfaction with the latter’s human rights record. If Ping is elected in August, US oil companies in 
Gabon are liable to see their contracts challenged.

Human rights and democracy promotion are major themes of US policy in Africa. Since the 1998 
al-Qaida bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, counterterrorism has also 
been a major concern. During his presidency, George W. Bush established the US military’s Africa 
Command to run US operations in the continent.

However, as part of Obama’s policy of winding down the US’s war against terrorism, and following 
the US’s contribution to the overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the US has 
constrained its operations. Its minimalistic approach to fighting Boko Haram in West Africa and 
al-Qaida offshoots in East Africa makes clear that the US’s strategic disarray, after seven-and-a-half 
years of the Obama presidency, has not left Africa unaffected.

World powers are not the only players in Africa.

Regional powers are also on the scene. Iran, for instance, views Africa as a theater for expanding 
its influence over the Middle East. Last month The Wall Street Journal reported on Iran’s growing 
missionary presence in West Africa.

Iran and Hezbollah are running Islamic centers in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania and Cameroon, and 
they’re getting results. Whereas in 1980, a Pew Survey showed no adherents to Shi’ite Islam in 
Africa, today, 12 percent of Nigeria’s 90 million Muslims are Shi’ites. So are 21% of Muslims in Chad,
20% in Tanzania, and 8% in Ghana.

Much of the missionary work is being handled by Lebanese expatriates in West Africa. Many of 
these former Lebanese are suspected of having close ties to Hezbollah. Indeed, earlier this year, 
the US Treasury Department named three Lebanese nationals living in Nigeria as Hezbollah 
operatives.

During Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tenure as Iranian president, Tehran expended enormous 
resources expanding and deepening its presence in Africa.

Among the fruits of his efforts was the Eritrean regime’s agreement to allow Iran to operate a naval 
base in the Horn of Africa. Iran’s cooperation with Sudan, and its use of Sudanese territory to ship 
advanced weapons to Gaza, reached new heights.

Iran’s Africa strategy took a major hit earlier this year, however. Owing to massive Saudi pressure,
and, in all likelihood, massive payoffs, Sudan, Comoros, Somalia and Djibouti cut diplomatic ties 
with Iran in January. Sudan even joined Saudi Arabia in its campaign against Iran in Yemen. Eritrea 
reportedly permitted the Saudis to launch operations in Yemen from its territory.

This then brings us back to Israel, and Netanyahu’s visit to Africa.

In recent years, Israel has also been expanding its relations with African nations. Even South 
Africa, Israel’s greatest antagonist in Africa, indicated earlier this year that its hostility isn’t all-
consuming.

In March, Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold paid a prolonged visit to South Africa where 
he was the guest of his South African counterpart.

South Africa aside, African nations from all over the continent view Israel as a rich source of 
technology and security expertise they are keen to tap.

They also view Israel as a rising economic power.

With an average economic growth rate of 6%, Africa is also an attractive market for Israeli 
companies across a swath of industries.

The most practical lesson from power politics in Africa is that for Africans, nothing is a done deal.

African states can cooperate simultaneously with competing outside powers and everyone benefits.

For instance, according to reports, Eritrea allows Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia to operate on its 
territory simultaneously. In other words, there is no reason to ever consider anyone in anyone’s 
pocket, and no reason not to ask for what we want. We may get it.

In recent years, Israel has done this to our advantage in the diplomatic realm, long thought to be a 
lost cause.

Last September, a draft resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency calling for Israel to 
open its nuclear sites to UN inspectors came up for a vote. It was defeated due to opposition from 
African states.

So, too, in late 2000, a draft UN Security Council resolution recognizing “Palestine” was 
defeated because Nigeria and Rwanda chose to abstain from voting. The African representatives’ 
action caught supporters of the resolution by surprise.

The Israeli leader most responsible for those successes was then-foreign minister Avigdor Liberman.

During his tenure at the Foreign Ministry, Liberman conducted two prolonged visits to Africa during 
which he visited seven countries, including Nigeria and Rwanda.

There is every reason to expect that during Netanyahu’s visit to Africa, Israel will expand and 
deepen its ties with Africa still further. And at some point, those deepened ties will result in further 
African support for Israel at the UN.

This returns us to our shattered accepted wisdom about Israel’s diplomatic isolation.

The view that Israel’s diplomatic fate is directly tied to its willingness to give up Judea and Samaria
and Jerusalem is based on the Eurocentric view that the EU is the most important player in the 
diplomatic arena and that Israel cannot be successful unless Brussels supports us. For Israel’s 
elites, the fact that the EU is hostile to Israel is taken as proof that we are morally compromised and don’t deserve its support.

But as Israel’s diplomatic rise in Africa, Asia, Russia and beyond makes clear, the Eurocentric view 
is wrong. Israel needn’t waste its time and energy trying to appease the Europeans. Not only is 
it an exercise in futility, given Europe’s boundless and unhinged hostility. It is also unnecessary, 
given Europe’s economic weakness and political decay.

Due to our elite’s continued allegiance to the Eurocentric view, scant media attention has been paid to Israel’s diplomatic blossoming. Much of the public is unaware that far from being isolated, Israel is enjoying a diplomatic rise unseen since the end of the Cold War.

The time, however, has come for us to recognize the change. For the faster we come to terms with 
our new position, the faster we will maximize its potential.